Volleyball extends win streak to six in El Paso

Volleyball extends win streak to six in El Paso

The North Texas volleyball team traveled to El Paso Friday night to take on the University of Texas at El Paso and although the Miners (4-14, 1-4) put up a strong fight, the Mean Green (18-2, 5-1) were able to continue their dominance in Conference USA after winning the match in four sets (28-30, 25-12, 25- 21, 25-23).

North Texas extended its winning streak to six games with the victory.

The Mean Green competed well in set one, but the Miners squeaked out a thrilling 30-28 win to open the match. An ace from Junior Alex Janak put North Texas on top during for a short time during what was a back-and-forth battle, but the Mean Green were unable to hold the lead.

“We just had too many errors.” head coach Andrew Palileo said. “In spite of that, we still almost won that set. So I thought we just needed to play a cleaner game in that second set, and I thought we did that well.”

North Texas came out that loss ready to play and dominated from the get-go in a 25-12 win. With the match tied at 1-1, North Texas pulled through for a set three victory (25-21) and continued battle towards a tight 25-23 win to close things off in the final set.

As they have for the majority of the year, the dynamic duo of Amanda Chamberlain and Karley York thrived while teaming up for 19 kills and 57 assists. York now sits just 85 assists away from moving to No. 7 in assists in program history.

Chamberlain also continued to climb up in ranks tonight. Her 260 career block assists rank No. 5 of all-time for North Texas volleyball.

“As a senior you always want to leave a legacy before you leave.” Chamberlain said. “I did want to break a couple of records before I left here, but I also just wanted to play to the best of my abilities.”

But it was the trio of freshmen in Henrianna Ibarra, Valarie Valerian, and Barbara Teakell who stood out on the court Friday night.

Ibarra came in with two aces in a row, Valerian lead the team in digs with 15 and Teakell provided 14 kills, including the final kill that brought the Mean Green to victory in set two.

“I never feel intimidated or pressured [as a freshman].” Teakell said. “We have so many upperclassmen that play such an important role to the team, and all they really want us to do is play volleyball.”

Next up: The Mean Green have hit the road to take on Florida Atlantic (11-6, 2-3) at 11 a.m. Sunday.